From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu Sep 28 2006 - 16:36:54 EDT
Hundreds of thousands of children forced to work in Ethiopia
09/28/2006
Some of the trafficked children are employed as domestic servants and kept within Ethiopia but others are sent abroad, sometimes in harsh and dangerous conditions. Some lucky children escape and find refuge in shelters.
The United Nations children's agency UNICEF estimates there are hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian youngsters, many as young as five years old currently involved in child labour.
Ethiopia is one of the world's poorest countries and many children are forced into employment or even sold in order to help their families financially. Working children often end up missing out on both their education and their childhood.
In rural areas of Ethiopia people typically have large families and many parents struggle to provide for their children. 'Mulu', whose name has been changed to protect her identity, says after her mother died, her father was looking after her and her sister. But when someone approached him and promised to take care of 'Mulu' and give her an education, he agreed.
For the next three years, 'Mulu' was treated as servant at the woman's house in the city, and forced to do all the household chores. She ran away and was found living on the streets, by police who brought her to the shelter for street children (Organisation for Prevention, Rehabilitation and Integration of Female Street Children - OPRIFS).
OPRIFS
OPRIFS was started in 2000, and, is backed by organisations such as Save the Children, it helps girls aged seven to eighteen who have been trafficked and who end up on the streets.
Timnit Lulu, a psychologist and counsellor at OPRIFS, helps the girl's to talk about their experiences. Many have been physically or sexually abused. Timnit says that children find it difficult to express what happened to them.
The police in Addis Ababa work closely with the government and various NGOs (non-governmental organisations) like OPRIFS in an effort to stop child trafficking. Inspector Atsede Wordofa, chief of Addis Ababa's Child Protection Unit says that as many as thirty girls are being brought to Addis Ababa every week.
Wordofa says that girls arrive at the bus station and are either identified as likely trafficking victims by police immediately or are later brought to police's attention by members of the public.
Fifteen-year-old 'Dina', whose name has also been changed, says she was just eight when she was trafficked from her home in northern Ethiopia. 'Dina' spent the next seven years in forced labour in various homes. She says found herself too afraid to escape because as time went by she couldn't remember where she came from and since she never received a salary, she had no money to go anywhere.
'Dina' says she worked seven days a week cooking, cleaning and taking care of children, often for families who had children her own age. Finally, after being kicked out by her employer, she managed to contact police who sent her to OPRIFS in Addis Ababa.
Six-month stay
Here girls like 'Dina' receive skills training such as sewing or weaving, as well as a basic education. The girls stay at OPRIFS for a maximum of six months, usually until their parents or families have been found. The organisation is currently looking for 'Dina''s family.
Stories like those of the trafficked girls are not uncommon and child labour is widespread in Ethiopia where labour laws are vague. UNICEF says one in three girls in Addis Ababa, aged between ten and fourteen, do not live with their parents and are working instead of going to school.
Head of UNICEF in Ethiopia Bjorn Ljungqvist says there are a huge number of children without parents or families in the country. But at places like the OPRIFS centre these girls are learning how to enjoy being children again.
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